Sakura Hanazono
Sakura Sakurai (桜井 さくら Sakurai Sakura) (née Hanazono) is a friend of Misaki Ayuzawa and one of the few female students at Seika High. Later in the series, she is now the wife of Kūga Sakurai and the mother of Yume Sakurai. Appearance Sakura is a petite teenage girl with wavy dark salmon pink medium-length hair, which she ties in pigtails and dark pink eyes. Sakura usually wears the school female standard uniform. In the manga, her hair is a little wavier and also her hair and her eyes are light pink. She is considered beautiful and very cute by many boys. Personality Sakura is a friendly, cheerful, joyful and sociable person who cares very much for her friends and she is always there for them when they need her. Sakura also has sometimes a childish attitude. She is quite popular amongst the boys, but frequently rejects their confessions; in particular, she rejected Masaru Gouda one hundred times. According to Shizuko Kaga, Sakura falls in love without carefully considering what the person is really like, as exampled by her persistent feelings for Kūga Sakurai, the two-faced womanizing singer of a popular band from a nearby high school. During their meeting, Sakura was very tolerant, accepting all the ignorance and indifference Kūga treated her with. At some point, Sakura tells Kūga to stop as he was trying to flirt with Misaki Ayuzawa. Sakura is also quite curious, stalking Takumi Usui along with Shizuko. She is very good friends with Misaki and Shizuko. Also, she is innocent and is in good terms with everybody. Sakura is calm and peaceful and even if she tries to look strong she is quite sensitive and emotive. Background Not much is known about Sakura's past except she has an older sister and she is very close to her as they are always going shopping together. She has a longstanding crush on Kūga Sakurai, for which Shizuko Kaga reprimands her often. Plot Sakura first appears alongside Shizuko Kaga in the school, requesting that Misaki Ayuzawa help them. Taking her to a sandbag, the girls reveal that the boxing club left it there and it is blocking the entrance to their classroom. As Misaki moves the sandbag herself, Sakura is left without words at what she sees and promptly hugs Misaki, thanking her for her help. Once Takumi Usui is spotted watching them, Sakura begins to rave about how great he is and notes that he is an attractive person who he is very popular but shows a sour face when revealing that this makes him uninterested in girls.Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Manga: Chapter 1, Pages 11-15 One night, Sakura and Shizuko give Misaki a call in which they ask her to stop a fight between two Seika High students and three students from the prestigious Miyabigaoka High School. Later, Usui narrates his version of Momotarō with Misaki as the titular character herself, her guardians played by Sakura and Shōichirō Yukimura and Momotarō's animal companions played by the Idiot Trio. Also it is revealed that Sakura is an avid fan of the indie rock band UxMishi and falls in love with Kūga Sakurai (the vocalist) during their concert. The next day, Sakura invites Misaki and Shizuko to a tea party that the band hosts next week at a café where the Idiot Trio are working part-time as waiters. As the meeting goes smoothly, Kūga starts to take an interest in Misaki and simply ignores Sakura. When Misaki leaves the bathroom, she finds him outside with Kōma Yabu (Sakurai's bandmate). Kūga again attempts to flirt with her and Misaki is shocked when he tells her he doesn't have feelings for Sakura, the invitation to her being just fanservice. Back at the table, Kūga continues to hit on Misaki, even asking Sakura to invite her to the concert. This hurts Sakura, although she complies. As his flirts become insults towards Misaki, Sakura tells him to stop. Misaki, having had enough of his behavior, grabs him by the necktie and tells him that she won't entrust Sakura to someone like him. After leaving the café, Shizuko reprimands Misaki for making a scene at the café; and Sakura for not being careful about choosing boys. Sakura is comforted by Misaki with a pat on the head and Misaki hopes that one day, Sakura will find someone that will truly love her. After this, Sakura, Shizuko and Misaki decide to follow Usui to have a peek at his private life and confirm rumors that he is rich. However, Usui knows he's being followed, so he leads the three on a wild goose chase around town. At the sports festival, at the obstacle race, the first prize is a kiss from an unwilling and horrified Sakura. Usui wins the race but decides to give the prize to Misaki, who came runner-up, so Sakura kisses Misaki on the cheek. During the festival, Sakura, Shizuko and other girls are opening a caféteria. Later, Sakura along with the other students go to a Buddhist temple for five days and four nights. After this Sakura invites Misaki and Shizuko to Yumesaki's Culture Festival to attend UxMishi’s concert, with Sakura assuring Misaki that Kūga has changed for the better. During the festival, Sakura strolled around together with Kūga. Also, at some point, Sakura visited Kūga at the hospital. In the manga, Sakura takes Kūga, along with Misaki Ayuzawa and Takumi Usui, on a one-day hot spring trip for his seventeenth birthday. In another chapter, Misaki sees them all alone and is ready to pull Sakura away before Takumi hadn't stopped her. Kūga and Sakura are later seen holding hands, proving that they have grown closer. Relationships Shizuko Kaga Shizuko seems Sakura's best friend and they are often doing things along with Misaki. They are always seen together at school, walking down the streets or having lunch together with Misaki. Shizuko and Sakura are in the arranging flowers club. Shizuko is quiet and thoughtful, but often has angry outbursts at Sakura, reprimanding her for her tendency to fall in love so quickly with the wrong guys. They are also in the same class. Misaki Ayuzawa Sakura and Misaki are good friends as they often do things together along with Shizuko. Misaki is very protective of Sakura, knowing about her tendency to fall in love without considering what the person is really like, and her popularity with Seika High's male population. She is less strict than Shizuko and acts like a mom to Sakura. During the sports festival, the boys chose Sakura as the kisser as a prize for the "Obstacle Race". This made Misaki tried her best to win the race. While in the race her opponent Gouda pushed her near the side of the school's swimming pool causing Usui to save her and race for her. Misaki continued the race even though she knew she will not win. When Usui beat Gouda, he rejected the prize to let Sakura kiss him. So the prize went to Misaki (the runner-up) and Sakura kissed her on the cheek. Misaki feels happy for Sakura seeing her in love, describing Sakura as cute. At that time Misaki, Sakura and Shizuko meeting UxMishi in the café, Sakura saw that Kūga (the boy Sakura likes) really liked Misaki. Misaki didn't know how to handle the situation and stood up to Kūga, saying she won't hand Sakura over to him. Later that night, after being scolded by Shizuko, Misaki found herself comforting Sakura. Sakura then makes sure that next time she falls in love, she'll make sure that he pats her on the head. Kūga Sakurai Sakura has a huge crush on him which develops further later in the storyline. At first, Kūga didn't show any interest in Sakura, ignoring and showing her indifference, even flirting with Misaki while knowing about Sakura's feelings for him. But this thing seems to change at the Yumesaki Festival, where Kūga is seen planning to stroll around with Sakura. In chapters 47 and 48 of the manga, Sakura takes Kūga, along with Misaki Ayuzawa and Takumi Usui, on a one-day hot spring trip for his seventeenth birthday. During this trip, it is made clear that he has feelings for Sakura. He shows a bit of annoyance towards the fact that Sakura is happy and smiles naturally while she is with Takumi and Misaki. Although he is bitter for the most part of the trip, he tells Sakura that if it hadn't been her who was with him, he would have been "long gone.". In another chapter, Misaki sees them all alone and was ready to pull Sakura away if Takumi hadn't stopped her. Kūga and Sakura are later seen holding hands, proving that they have grown closer. In chapter 85 of the manga, she is shown pregnant. She says it's her second child and that she's married to Kūga. Quotes *(talking about Kūga Sakurai) ‘‘ I'' just want to stay by his side''! For the sake of being qualified to stand by the person you like... there's no other way but to work hard!’’Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! Manga Chapter 48 Page 16 *‘‘''Next time, when I fall in love, I want it to be with someone who pats my head just like this.’’Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! Manga Chapter 20 *‘‘''Words won't be enough to describe it. The feeling of love keeps flowing out from everywhere... even if everyone against it... even if you know that you shouldn't... but once you've noticed this feeling... you won't be able to stop it anymore.’’Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! Manga Chapter 32 Trivia *The name Sakura means "cherry blossom" (さくら). **Cherry blossom is a flower that serves as the national flower for the nation of Japan. *Sakura's surname Hanazono means "flower" (花 ) (hana) and "garden" (園) (zono). *According to the character book in the manga: **Sakura's specialty is karaoke. **Sakura's motto is'' "No Music No Life"''. **Sakura's hobby is listening to UxMishi band songs. *Sakura was in class 3-3.Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! Manga Chapter 65 References Navigation Category:Minor Character Category:Characters Category:Female characters Category:Seika Students Category:Participants of wedding